In advance, terribly sorry about the huge post. I have a lot to mention. :)

Alright, so I've been playing this for a while yesterday and a couple of hours today and I thought I'd write my thoughts on it. First of all, this is my personal opinion, nothing I say can be considered fact unless the developer confirms it.

Alright, so to start off with I want to mention the graphics.I am really happy about the graphics, especially considering that you seem to have used Reiner's tile set, an amazing tile set which has not been used commercially before.They are right there but no one ever uses them, I love to see a game that utilizes them well.That said, there does not seem to be a lot of different tiles and sprites but if you only use Reiner's for now, that is to be expected.

Sounds and music, not much to say. There seems to be no more than 5 different sounds and no music...It would be awesome with some variety but it's not -greatly- needed in my opinion.

As for gameplay... Well that is where this game shines, at least in it's future potential. (I will explain my thoughts and ideas later)It is an MMO, but all the content past the beginning island, strangely called the Mainland, is player created... That is to say, when you make an account, you are able to make 1 character and one island. (adventure area)The adventure maker may then sculpt this area into the island, creating a base camp, which is the place where you shop and do not adventure, creating the adventure area where you complete quests and kill monsters.Unfortunately, the uniqueness of each adventure seems to stop at the story being told itself.There are a small amount of different usable buildings, and unless it's for story reasons, it doesn't make sense not to place them all in the base area.Each building only has one pre-programmed purpose, like the fletcher allows you to craft bows and arrows and the inn allows you to send and receive in-game mail.The friendly NPC's only have one purpose, which is tell the story, either by simply talking, or by giving quests.It might also just be me who doesn't know how to turn in quests but if quests turn themselves in when you return to town, I do not think they give rewards.I feel like I am given no real reason to play all the different player made adventures, and here is why: There is no real reason to, other than to read the differentquest text and overall story that each adventure maker writes. None of the adventures have anything unique to present to me and there is no real progression to it.There is, in the game right now, a player created map called Leveling, where the designer has made a road that takes you all the way around, clears the map for 100% exploration and gathers a lot of resources, for a run that takes a couple of minutes.I feel that if you want me to experience all the game has to offer, you shouldn't allow people to endlessly grind a map like that that is made solely for maxing out your character.No one forces people to play a map like that but I think a majority will want to give themselves a head start since no limits are imposed on them.

On to AI... It is incredibly simple. The only creatures that move are hostiles, and either they walk up to you and start hitting you, or they walk around confused until they can get to you.The friendly NPC's just stand there, their dialogue can be scripted however the adventure maker wants.Animals are static, there is no interaction.

As for the price, the player has a few option. I am not sure if there is a monthly membership. There is a lifetime membership costing $40 dollars, but if you do not want that, you can purchase additional island slots and character slots for $4 each, not a bad deal at all.

Overall opinion.... It might sound like I hate it, but in no way do I hate it. I love it, I love it's potential and I have had several fun hours with it and will continue to have more.

Ideas:I do have a few. First of all, I would love to have to earn the ability to make adventures... That sounds strange, but hear me out.As it is right now, my island will be just like everybody elses, since we do not have to earn anything, essentially making every island the same.My idea is, what if adventuring actually had a point. What if, when you were out adventuring, you could earn a number of other rewards that could be used to not only craft equipment, but could be used to craft tiles, building deeds and hireling deeds needed to craft and populate your own adventure.It is awesome to explore other people's adventures but there is really no point to it currently, since essentially all (finished) adventures are the same, just with different quests.I think it would be great if the adventure maker could offer rewards for completing his quests or completing his entire adventure and such. Perhaps have a reward chest or whatever, and let the creator dump items into it at will, and a reward could be taken out of the chest at random and given to whoever completes a certain quest or all the quests.Just mentioning things off the top of my head here. Generally I think it would really help the progress of the game, if adventure makers got some tools to make their adventure different from everyone elses, and give the players reason to play the adventures as opposed to just grind maps like the leveling map I mentioned earlier. :)

Feel free to reply if you have anything to add or inform me off that I wasn't aware of in regards to what I mention in this post. :)*Goes back to playing the Druidic Shore adventure*

Thanks for this excellent review, Darkbynight! Storytelling and following other's stories is a central part of the experience. Overall, the game is about creativity, so it is more open-ended and self-directed than many RPGs.

You mentioned that players can grind the "Leveling" island and max out their character and get a "head start." The character design is rather unique in that there is no maximum "best" level. Higher levels give you more range to balance your character with weapons and equipment, but are harder to maintain. The way the creature/reward system works, the Leveling island doesn't really give you any gameplay advantage (just a convenient track to walk around on). So, if grinding is your thing, then have at it!

Allowing island creators to offer rewards is something I want to add, but it's a tricky subject. Like you mentioned with the grinding island, players will likely just reward everything for free with no challenge. As with the rest of the game design and balance, I seek to implement some clever approach to this. In fact, your concept of a reward chest, which the author's character must fill, is very similar to something I had in mind. That way, it's up to the author to play and provide the rewards. Great concept!

Another idea you mentioned, which is also very similar to a potential enhancement, is earning special tile rewards that players can put to use on their own islands. For this first version, I had to keep things simple, but I will consider this strongly for a future update.

Overall, your review is very insightful, and I hope to see you around!